Acupressure, as with acupuncture, is a form of treatment for various conditions and maladies. Acupuncture is well known to eastern medical thought and practice, but only recently is introduced into western medicine. Acupuncture can be traced back at least 2,500 years as a form of medical treatment in China. The concept behind acupuncture is based on the premise there are patterns of energy flow through the body that are essential for proper health. Imbalance or disruption of energy flow through any of these patterns is believed to be responsible for disease. Which pattern is disrupted, and where, influences which disease state is experienced by the afflicted person.
The energy flow patterns through the body have been mapped extensively and there are substantial numbers of points along the flow patterns where the energy flow is close to the skin surface. Using needles of various types, the acupuncturist is able to reach these points by placing the needles into the skin at these known points. The presence of the needle at that point alters the flow of energy, changing the dynamics in the energy flow. When done properly, using the proper number and position of needles, acupuncture re-aligns the energy flow to one of balance and restoration of health.
The pattern of energy flow disruption is identifiable to the type of disease that the patient presents with. The acupuncturist determines the ailment complained of which then identifies the energy flow imbalance. The energy flow imbalance is then corrected by placing one or more needles into the appropriate points that are associated with the type of energy flow imbalance corresponding to the disease.
The National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Statement on Acupuncture, No. 107, Nov. 3-5, 1997, concluded that acupuncture was an effective therapy for certain medical conditions, especially those involving nausea and pain and should be integrated into standard medical practice. In particular, headaches, nausea, menstrual cramps, low back pain and dental analgesia were some of the medical conditions acupuncture was considered useful for.
The most common use for acupuncture in the U.S. is pain, with headache as the most frequent complaint in doctors' offices review of symptoms, and the most frequent reason for use of over-the-counter medications. U.S. and Chinese studies have shown acupuncture and acupressure therapy useful for pain and headache in particular. The use of acupressure therapy for headaches in the hands of the lay public could greatly enhance the treatment of headaches by a simple inexpensive technique with virtually no negative side effects.
Acupressure is a direct offshoot of acupuncture wherein one or more known points on the surface of the skin receive pressure instead of having a needle inserted. The concept remains the same, re-institute balanced energy flow as treatment of a malady caused by an imbalance in the energy flow through the body.
Acupuncture and acupressure points are at anatomically defined areas of the skin along 12 meridians, or lines of energy flow. In addition, further research has determined that there are several areas on the surface of the skin where the entire body is represented as a homunculus. Several areas incorporating a homunculus representation are the ears, hands, and soles of the feet. Acupuncture and acupressure to portions of the ear, hand, or sole of the foot effects a corrective energy change in the part of the body represented by that part of the homunculus.
Several acupressure devices are known in the art. A few are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,866,597; 3,886,939; 3,987,787; and 4,022,189, and all issued to Boxer. The devices disclosed make use of one or more small rigid objects that are applied by the user to one or more particular points of the user's body. The devices disclosed are either square or rectangular in shape and they either have a single small object in the center or several spread randomly across the surface of the device. Each of these devices requires that either the user or a helper have considerable knowledge and experience in determining where and how to place the objects on the user's skin. U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,234 issued to Yazawa discloses a similar device to that of Boxer, but adds a medicated adhesive layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,277 issued to Mendell discloses a custom molded, and expensive, device for use in a person's ear that bears one or more blunt protrusions of the mold surface as acupressure points. Such a device is limited to use by only the person for which the device is molded and requires skilled help in fabricating the device. Placement of the acupressure points on the device is permanent. A single patient would require any number of individual custom molded devices, each device having a different pattern of acupressure points corresponding to treatment of differing maladies, in order to treat the different maladies that one person may encounter over time.
Another device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,296 issued to McCall wherein the device is a custom molded piece, again for a single individual's ear. This device incorporates nodules inserted into the surface of the molded device to achieve the acupressure effect. Like the Mendell device, this device requires one of high skill to construct the device for proper fit and each mold can only treat the one specific malady intended.
What is needed is a device that is relatively inexpensive and easy enough to be applied by the user without need to involve an expert in acupressure in the process. The device will conform and mold easily to the user's skin surface. Different shapes of the device would have uses outside of just placement on, or about, the user's ear. Each shape will be keyed to a particular anatomical surface shape that is readily identifiable to the user, thus providing easy accurate placement of the acupressure device.